BI National Convention Nudges

Let’s Talk Stocks Panel

The 65th annual Better Investing National Convention got underway Thursday evening with snapshot discussions of stock ideas — a tradition that now dates back several years to Ken Kavula’s nudge at the 2008 convention in Chicago. Serving on last night’s panel were some familiar and respected long-term investors from across the country: Kim Butcher, Ann Cuneaz, Pat Donnelly, Cy Lynch, Ken Kavula and Mark Robertson. In something resembling lightning round fashion (but not covering nearly as many stocks as we did in Chicago in 2008 … more on that in a minute) the following stocks were nudged:

Schaumburg/Chicago … Looking Back

The Let’s Talk Stock panel selected many more stocks back in 2008 and it’s worth looking back over the last eight years to see how we did.

Five of the companies were acquired — all of them at premiums, some of them quite lofty. Hugh McManus was responsible for a few of these market crushers, and many of us remember Genentech (DNA) fondly.

18-of-the-34 selections beat the Wilshire 5000 and the current annualized total return on the surviving 29 companies is 9.5%.